The finance boss who helped steer Lloyds Banking Group through the aftermath of its HBOS acquisition in 2008 announced plans to quit the firm today.

Tim Tookey, who joined Lloyds from Prudential in 2006 and became finance director two years later, will leave the bank in February to become chief financial officer at Friends Life, the life assurer owned by Resolution.

His role at Lloyds has included the oversight of a £13.5bn rights issue and the integration of HBOS in moves requiring thousands of job cuts.

Mr Tookey said there had been no falling out with the bank’s chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio, who joined the company from Santander in February.

Lloyds said the process to find a new finance director was under way but that Mr Tookey will remain in his role until the company’s full-year results.

Chairman Sir Win Bischoff said: "I greatly appreciate Tim’s significant contribution, both as the group’s finance director and as a member of our board."

He also announced that deputy chairman Sandy Leitch planned to retire from the board and as chairman of Scottish Widows at the end of 2011 due to increasing time pressure from other business commitments.